Actually the WSR07 started Tuesday morning in the Bilderberg Parkhotel with the teams for the Photocontest. For the next three days the photographers and their choosen skateboarders spread out in the city of Rotterdam to capture the ultimate skate picture with in the city limits. Joe Brook from California favoured the harbour of Rotterdam and shoot the photographers, skateboarders and publics favourite picture.Congrats to Joe Brook from SLAP Magazine and his team for winning the WSR07 photocontest. Second place went to Davi Chami and third place to Rotterdam's local Marcel Veldman.

After just five days of buildup with tons of wood and a lot of great help from all the volunteers and helpers, the streetcourse [build and designed by IOU ramps] was finished in the Ahoy Stadium and in the middle of it a boat was floating...

Prequalifications were on the schedule all day on Friday and with a international line up on the street course the judges were pretty busy. Saturday started with the qualification for street.

Sunday started with the semis still in a jam format and a cut to 40, as well as the Vert Finals outdoor. The ten finalist took the risk of the windy conditions to skate in two jams of five men the finals of the WSR07. Each jam was 10 minutes long. In the second jam Sandro Dias from Brazil and Rune Glifberg from Denmark battled it out and first place went to Rune! Congrats to Denmark!

There are no words for the Final on Sunday. With the best ten skateboarders, chosen from the semis, the Final took place in a new pioneering system: the 10th place rider started with two minutes on his own. This time it was Fredrik Austbo from Norway with frontside 360s over the boat. After two minutes the 9th place Ondrej Leskoviansky from Slovenia drops in and they skated together for one minute. After three minutes it was time to go for Fredrik Austbo with a backside lipslide. Ondrej had now the minute of his life on his own with perfect 50/50 and crooked grinds until the 8th placed Anthony Schultz from USA started his time of three minutes. Number seven was Dominik Dietrich from Austria with frontside bluntslide down the big rail and big spins over the boat until 11-year old Axel Cruysberghs from Belgium drops in and starts his three minutes. Placed 5th in the semis was Arto Saari from Finland and heeled flipped up the stairs in his three minutes continuing with smooth backside lipsslides and tail slides kickflips over the pyramide and perfect crooked grinds. Tim Zom from the Netherlands not only place four for the Finals he also indy aired through the boat and skated his last minute together with David Loy from the USA, who did frontside 270s and nice transfers in his three minutes of fame, which he shared also with Chris Pfanner from Austria, who place 2nd in the semifinals. And then it was time for the last three minutes for the first place of the semis and that was David Gonzalez from Columbia doing beautiful smith grinds and nollies up the stairs.Winner of this finals was Arto Saari from Finland!!!

Best Trick was done by Newcomer Curren Caples, 11-year old from Ventura, California with a 360s Varial Mute Grab over the boat.

We would love to continue, but it is time to thank all the people who helped this event happened and all the skateboarders, which made their way to the city of Rotterdam.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

No, we did not forget. Here are the results of the Photocontest. After narrowly missing the big price two years ago Joe Brook now got his well deserved $10.000 check after being chased off a boat by a not-so-friendly-Russian crew. Nazdarovje!Check out this really nice item on Joe and the photocontest. Most of it is in English [forward to 03:30mins].